I’ve been spending much of this blog’s bandwidth on the Hugo awards this year. I have provided history, and opinion. I have written multiple reviews of the nominated works. I have turned myself into a critic. I think I’ve been a delightfully snarky and insightful critic, but a critic nonetheless.
I am not a big fan of critics. They are too removed from the process of creation. I don’t feel like I have made anything new by being a Hugo critic. No new synthesis, not critical observation, jokes are derivative of the works they mock; I don’t like it.
I have decided to create something more extensive than a blog post. I am going to write a novella. It will be a science fiction novella, and I will use the NANOWRIMO contest to provide a bit of monitoring of my effort so that I stay more focused than my own devices allow.
This means I will not be posting for a bit. I may get one or two posts off, but my attention will be focused on getting the novella written, and then edited. I am more afraid of the editing as I am a lousy editor; you all know that if you have read many of my posts.
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
End of days with mayonaise
There is a little disagreement over the possibility that the world will end tomorrow. I know “End” is such a final sounding word, isn’t it? So let us just call it a massive extinction event that calls all the chosen, noble, and great people back to the heavenly father. If I made up some end-times prophesy I would try and make it less patronizing and melodramatic. “Today is the first day of the rest of your life” would work for me, but it is a little cliché.
Should the world not end tomorrow it is supposed to definitely end by Monday. I don’t think this is suggesting that the prophesy states that making it to Thursday ensures an unencumbered weekend, but I’m not sure.
The prophesy is centered around counting to seven and an encounter with God himself by a temporarily dead woman by the name of Julie Rowe. The seven is important because it has been 14 years since terrorists flew planes into the World trade center, the pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania; 14 is 2X7. Julie is important because God spoke to her directly, and dropped several not-so-subtle hints that the world was going to end real soon.
Julie is a member in good standing of a religion called “The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints”. The “Later-Day” part of the title is all about the end of the world, or, more precisely, the massive extinction event that calls all the chosen, noble, and great people back to the heavenly father. Tens of thousands of –mostly Mormon- people have bought Sister Rowe’s book(s), and she is a popular speaker at spiritual gatherings. Nonetheless, it is usually bad form to actually produce evidence of the actual end of the world, and this particular world-ending prophesy is no exception. The LDS church has issues the following official statement:
It has also been pointed out that the late Mormon authority Boyd K. Packer (who was famous for his opinions on masturbation and the way women should dress) stated in 2011 that people may even live to see their great grandchildren before the world ended; no need to stop tithing now I suppose.
Tomorrow (Wednesday September 23rd) is the obvious day for the world to end. It is the autumnal equinox, and ending the world in conjunction with some celestial event is much more elegant than just pulling any old date out of the hat. Unfortunately Monday (28th of September) appears to be the more agreed upon date. Does this mean that some people will be able to get to work, have those Monday thoughts where the world is just a huge bag of s**t, and then “poof” it’s all gone? Other people who sleep in may then get the last laugh if the end comes slow enough to get in a laugh.
Actually the end is supposed to be fairly pedestrian (someone once teased me for using that word too often) as ends-of-worlds go. A giant earthquake-thing will hit somewhere near or around Utah (in other words near the absolute center of the universe). This will cause widespread panic, and be followed by other bad things that will harm people to death and beyond. Because mayhem, panic, and uncomfortably nasty things are forecast the citizens of Utah are stocking up on stuff; stuff like mayonnaise, ammunition, and potato flakes. Sales at some Utah “prepper” stores have been up over 500% of normal for quite a little while.
All this raises many questions; many of which will be answered in time. I for one am not looking forward to the answer to all of the questions. Especially: “What do you do with gallons of expiring mayonnaise?”
Should the world not end tomorrow it is supposed to definitely end by Monday. I don’t think this is suggesting that the prophesy states that making it to Thursday ensures an unencumbered weekend, but I’m not sure.
The prophesy is centered around counting to seven and an encounter with God himself by a temporarily dead woman by the name of Julie Rowe. The seven is important because it has been 14 years since terrorists flew planes into the World trade center, the pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania; 14 is 2X7. Julie is important because God spoke to her directly, and dropped several not-so-subtle hints that the world was going to end real soon.
Julie is a member in good standing of a religion called “The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints”. The “Later-Day” part of the title is all about the end of the world, or, more precisely, the massive extinction event that calls all the chosen, noble, and great people back to the heavenly father. Tens of thousands of –mostly Mormon- people have bought Sister Rowe’s book(s), and she is a popular speaker at spiritual gatherings. Nonetheless, it is usually bad form to actually produce evidence of the actual end of the world, and this particular world-ending prophesy is no exception. The LDS church has issues the following official statement:
Although Sister Rowe is an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, her book is not endorsed by the Church and should not be recommended to students or used as a resource in teaching them. The experiences she shares are her own personal experiences and do not necessarily reflect Church doctrine or they may distort Church doctrine.
It has also been pointed out that the late Mormon authority Boyd K. Packer (who was famous for his opinions on masturbation and the way women should dress) stated in 2011 that people may even live to see their great grandchildren before the world ended; no need to stop tithing now I suppose.
Tomorrow (Wednesday September 23rd) is the obvious day for the world to end. It is the autumnal equinox, and ending the world in conjunction with some celestial event is much more elegant than just pulling any old date out of the hat. Unfortunately Monday (28th of September) appears to be the more agreed upon date. Does this mean that some people will be able to get to work, have those Monday thoughts where the world is just a huge bag of s**t, and then “poof” it’s all gone? Other people who sleep in may then get the last laugh if the end comes slow enough to get in a laugh.
Actually the end is supposed to be fairly pedestrian (someone once teased me for using that word too often) as ends-of-worlds go. A giant earthquake-thing will hit somewhere near or around Utah (in other words near the absolute center of the universe). This will cause widespread panic, and be followed by other bad things that will harm people to death and beyond. Because mayhem, panic, and uncomfortably nasty things are forecast the citizens of Utah are stocking up on stuff; stuff like mayonnaise, ammunition, and potato flakes. Sales at some Utah “prepper” stores have been up over 500% of normal for quite a little while.
All this raises many questions; many of which will be answered in time. I for one am not looking forward to the answer to all of the questions. Especially: “What do you do with gallons of expiring mayonnaise?”
Monday, August 24, 2015
No Wins Hugo
This post puts a final nail in the SNARL-Hugo series of posts. I must admit
to being completely put off by the quality of this year's short fiction
nominees. I am afraid we will see this problem again if there is not a
revamping of the nomination process.
This last weekend the Hugo award winners were announced, and the big winner was:
"No" only failed to place in a couple categories. Interestingly "No" was shut out in both the dramatic presentations categories; the only categories it had ever won in the past.
"No" was my personal favorite in the short fiction categories. I had almost hoped that Kary English's story "Totaled" would have won, but if it had I would have been left thinking that it might have lost to worthy competitors. I don't think "No" would have beat Kary if there were any other reasonable short stories to judge hers against. Interestingly the winner of the Novelette category was the only nominated short fiction I have not read. I will probably not read it as I am just sick of whatever this stuff is that they call short fiction in 2015.
The thing is that the rabid-sad puppies filled the nominations with work -especially in the short fiction- that was awful. I should have kept track of the descriptors used to explain how bad people thought the Rabid-Sad puppies work was. It would have been nice to know if "%!!?# **%$!! That **&p;%;#$!! Was &;*(^)!;$%?" beat out "Can I have my hour back?", or if something more vanilla like "Please get me a plastic spoon so I can scrape the residue left by reading that crap out of my brain!" could chalk up a win.
The slate-filling is something that is done in reduction down-select voting processes. In Utah this is the reason behind maintaining a costly caucus-primary system. Since only two candidates make it from the closed caucus to the public primary it is possible to slate dummy candidates to force out candidates that might win in the primary if the public was given a chance to vote for them. Since I have been in Utah the slating in caucus has been used to elect Senator Mike Lee, and allowed John Huntsman to be elected governor when the incumbent had something like an 85% approval rating. It almost worked against Senator Orin Hatch in the last election cycle; hatch went on to win the public primary by a nearly two-to-one margin. The idea to slate out popular candidates in order to control an election is a Utah idea. Interestingly the two main "sads" in the rabid-sad puppy group are Utahians. They took what they thought was a winning political strategy from the rooms of the Utah GOP caucus, and applied it to a literary award.
In any sacrificial slating there are dummy candidates. Tim Bridgewater was the dummy GOP candidate for Mike Lee. Nolan Karras was the dummy GOP candidate for John Huntsman. In the case of this year's Hugo awards it looked like most of the dummy candidates were just one guy: John C. Wright. JCW was nominated into so many slots that I would be surprised if it were not some sort of a record. And all of the work used to nominate him was craptacular. It was some of the worst written fiction of any length I have ever read in any genre. The fact that so many of what I hope are JCW's worst works received Hugo nominations does permanent damage to the genre of science fiction. Already collections that include these turds of stories are being offered for sale with the announcement that they contain "Hugo Nominated" works. There will be nobody around to say "This story may have been nominated, but it lost to No Award it was so bad".
Reading the Hugo-nominated works of John C. Wright is not just a waste of time it is a waste of interest. The Hugo process may have finally figured out how to nominate dramatic presentations, but it has failed the written word. There is a steady stream of ways to be influenced over what TV show to watch; there may be one less way to get reasonable recommendations about what written work is worth reading. The Hugos does not provide an important voice in the selection of TV shows, but it was (is?) one of only a few for short science fiction works.
There are several conservative commentators who decry the strong showing of "No" at the 2015 Hugos as a petulant attack on the civility and social order. Most people just don't care, which is actually worse. Science fiction has actively imagined the downfall of civilization fairly often, but unless people trust the Hugo process to identify the best of science fiction the Hugos awards are literally worthless; there is in fact no other significant purpose for the Hugos.
If the rabid-sad puppies are successful in pushing the Hugo awards down the path of triviality again next year I will probably join the vast majority of people who don't care about them already.
The strong "No" showing may be the first step back from the brink for the Hugos. However, the rabid-sad puppies vow to do the same thing to the Hugos next year. Vox Day is even holding a special secret workshop for 2016 Hugo strategizing this Thursday (27 August 2015).
The only way to counter that threat is to get enough votes for good works. But how do you find the really good works out of the seemingly endless morass of science fiction and fantasy? Well... you could get people to recommend good works to other people who might together nominate them. If you read something worthwhile you need to tell other people about it, and explain why you liked it. Put your opinion on the line like I did this year. Help make reading the Hugo nominated works a pleasure in 2016.
This last weekend the Hugo award winners were announced, and the big winner was:
NO AWARD
- "No" won handily in five categories (Novella, Short Story, Best Related Work, Editor Short Form, Editor Long Form).
- "No" came in second in four categories ( Novelette, Professional Artist, Fanzine, Fan Writer), and picked up a prestigious second place John Campbell award for best new writer.
- "No" came in third in two categories (Novel, Fancast)
- "No" came in fourth in one category (Semiprozine)
- "No" came in fifth, beating only one nominee, in only one category (Best Graphic Story)
"No" only failed to place in a couple categories. Interestingly "No" was shut out in both the dramatic presentations categories; the only categories it had ever won in the past.
"No" was my personal favorite in the short fiction categories. I had almost hoped that Kary English's story "Totaled" would have won, but if it had I would have been left thinking that it might have lost to worthy competitors. I don't think "No" would have beat Kary if there were any other reasonable short stories to judge hers against. Interestingly the winner of the Novelette category was the only nominated short fiction I have not read. I will probably not read it as I am just sick of whatever this stuff is that they call short fiction in 2015.
The thing is that the rabid-sad puppies filled the nominations with work -especially in the short fiction- that was awful. I should have kept track of the descriptors used to explain how bad people thought the Rabid-Sad puppies work was. It would have been nice to know if "%!!?# **%$!! That **&p;%;#$!! Was &;*(^)!;$%?" beat out "Can I have my hour back?", or if something more vanilla like "Please get me a plastic spoon so I can scrape the residue left by reading that crap out of my brain!" could chalk up a win.
The slate-filling is something that is done in reduction down-select voting processes. In Utah this is the reason behind maintaining a costly caucus-primary system. Since only two candidates make it from the closed caucus to the public primary it is possible to slate dummy candidates to force out candidates that might win in the primary if the public was given a chance to vote for them. Since I have been in Utah the slating in caucus has been used to elect Senator Mike Lee, and allowed John Huntsman to be elected governor when the incumbent had something like an 85% approval rating. It almost worked against Senator Orin Hatch in the last election cycle; hatch went on to win the public primary by a nearly two-to-one margin. The idea to slate out popular candidates in order to control an election is a Utah idea. Interestingly the two main "sads" in the rabid-sad puppy group are Utahians. They took what they thought was a winning political strategy from the rooms of the Utah GOP caucus, and applied it to a literary award.
"Our execution wasn't flawless. I made two mistakes, one which was fortuitous as it permitted Three Body Problem to make the shortlist and win, and one which was stupid as it cost us a 6th category in novelette. Our discipline could also have been better, although I don't see that it would have made any difference at all with regards to either the nominations or the awards. But I trust the moderate approach is now sufficiently discredited in everyone's eyes." -- Vox Day on Vox Popoli 23 August 2015
"From Communists to Muslims to SJWs, various philosophies and religions have been more than happy to attempt to coopt Jesus Christ, because they believe he is dead. What they cannot countenance are the servants of the Living God" -- Vox Day on Vox Popoli 24 August 2015
In any sacrificial slating there are dummy candidates. Tim Bridgewater was the dummy GOP candidate for Mike Lee. Nolan Karras was the dummy GOP candidate for John Huntsman. In the case of this year's Hugo awards it looked like most of the dummy candidates were just one guy: John C. Wright. JCW was nominated into so many slots that I would be surprised if it were not some sort of a record. And all of the work used to nominate him was craptacular. It was some of the worst written fiction of any length I have ever read in any genre. The fact that so many of what I hope are JCW's worst works received Hugo nominations does permanent damage to the genre of science fiction. Already collections that include these turds of stories are being offered for sale with the announcement that they contain "Hugo Nominated" works. There will be nobody around to say "This story may have been nominated, but it lost to No Award it was so bad".
Reading the Hugo-nominated works of John C. Wright is not just a waste of time it is a waste of interest. The Hugo process may have finally figured out how to nominate dramatic presentations, but it has failed the written word. There is a steady stream of ways to be influenced over what TV show to watch; there may be one less way to get reasonable recommendations about what written work is worth reading. The Hugos does not provide an important voice in the selection of TV shows, but it was (is?) one of only a few for short science fiction works.
"I should mention that during the last few months of the Sad Puppies kerfluffle, I once upon a time accurately described him, Mr. Moshe Feder, and Mrs Irene Gallo of Tor Books as ‘Christ Haters.’ The support of abortion, sodomy, and euthanasia rather unambiguously put a soul into the position of open rebellion against Christian teachings. In addition, any man who bears false witness against his neighbor, delights in poison-tongued gossip, and destroys writing careers of anyone who does not support his politics not only disobeys Christ, but violates the ordinary decency of ordinary men of good will of any faith." -- John C. Wright on his blog 23 August 2015
There are several conservative commentators who decry the strong showing of "No" at the 2015 Hugos as a petulant attack on the civility and social order. Most people just don't care, which is actually worse. Science fiction has actively imagined the downfall of civilization fairly often, but unless people trust the Hugo process to identify the best of science fiction the Hugos awards are literally worthless; there is in fact no other significant purpose for the Hugos.
"The social justice tendency, here as elsewhere, is driven by anxious white middle-class bloggers and authors who turn their noses up at the tastes of the proletariat. They'd rather celebrate books about coming to terms with the disabled transgender experience than a good story about aliens and ray guns." -- Milo Yiannopoulos on Breitbart 23 August 2015
If the rabid-sad puppies are successful in pushing the Hugo awards down the path of triviality again next year I will probably join the vast majority of people who don't care about them already.
The strong "No" showing may be the first step back from the brink for the Hugos. However, the rabid-sad puppies vow to do the same thing to the Hugos next year. Vox Day is even holding a special secret workshop for 2016 Hugo strategizing this Thursday (27 August 2015).
The only way to counter that threat is to get enough votes for good works. But how do you find the really good works out of the seemingly endless morass of science fiction and fantasy? Well... you could get people to recommend good works to other people who might together nominate them. If you read something worthwhile you need to tell other people about it, and explain why you liked it. Put your opinion on the line like I did this year. Help make reading the Hugo nominated works a pleasure in 2016.
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